Kat Calvin
Jul 10, 2017 · 5 min read

7/9/17

Back at Jiffy Lube. I think this is going to be a monthly thing. My poor car.

Luckily, the Jiffer has wifi so I can work while I’m waiting.

The last week or so has been… well, as intense as usual I guess. July 4th is my favorite day and I spent it having my usual John Adams marathon. I love that show, and I especially love the dude who plays the perfect George Washington.

The rest of my time has been spent in meetings all day with partners, other activists, other resistance org leaders, and lots and lots and lots of community groups. I have met with so many Indivisible chapters and huddles and whatnot and it’s great. It’s so awesome being able to connect with people all over Virginia and seeing what the real situation is on the ground and how people are feeling and how we can channel the energy and passion of the groups towards making a real impact.

I had an interview with NPR which was awesome and they may do a story on us sometime in the far future, I’ll let you know if they do. For now, here’s a super awkward selfie of me in the studio:

#awkwardblackgirl

Of course, all of this driving and living with my earthly possessions in my car and meeting and trying to build a national infrastructure while recruiting, training, and supporting local chapters with absolutely no money all by myself while every day there are a dozen more absolutely insane and terrifying news stories has been SO STRESSFUL. There isn’t enough yoga in the world to fight the stress 100% of the time and my most peaceful meditation strategy lately has been visualizing the nuclear apocalypse. Try it some time. It’s so calming to imagine everything ending in a fiery blast.

I was at the end of my rope on Saturday night and was sooo stressed out but had to wake up on Sunday morning and drive a few hours to Fauquier County to train a new local chapter of Spread The Vote and I am so glad I did because it. was. amazing.

I walked into a room full of people in this rural county who had actually shown up on a Sunday to learn about how to do this ridiculously hard thing and were excited to do it. I trained them and they got organized and into committees and took off and when everyone walked out they had leadership and jobs and dates for their next meetings and were READY TO GO. I was floored. It was exactly what I needed to remind me that this work is really slow and hard and mostly uphill but I think it’s actually going to work.

Then today I got meeting notes from the GA chapter from their latest meeting and they had questions and accomplishments and next steps and I was super excited.

True, I may have to get a side job at Starbucks in a couple of weeks and I will still be doing this with no other staff for quite a while but that’s okay because every day there are reminders that this is going to happen and it’s going to work and we’re here forever and not just until the next election so we’ll get there.

After the meeting I went to the MLK memorial to think for a while. I couldn’t stay long though because I felt like Dr. King was staring right at me and saying “Get to work”. So I did.

The car is done. I’m going to find food. Tonight I’m meeting with a huddle in Arlington and tomorrow I’m back to Richmond for a series of meetings and then out in the country for the kick off of Melissa Bryant’s campaign in VA56. I’ve been meeting campaign managers for VA delegate candidates as well as just awesome people who are running for office around the country and it is so nice to be able to introduce them to groups who can help them with tech, design, canvassers, etc. because we have so many groups in our roundtable now and because I’ve been lucky to get to know the founders of so many great groups over the last however many months we’ve been doing this. I’m becoming a bit of a resistance consultant for campaigns and vice versa and it’s really great to be able to connect the people who want to help with the people who need them.

Side note: I highly recommend that you read The Man Without A Face by Masha Gessen and at the very least watch this excellent reporting by Richard Engel on his new show On Assignment. He interviews a lot of the people she wrote about and tells the terrifying story of the rise and rule of Vladimir Putin.

I had my own minor encounter with the Russian state last week and it creeped me out. If you’re not using a VPN and two-factor authentication, please start.

Stay safe out there!

Other things:

I really love this mural of Bernie in Richmond

Tiffany did a press conference about the sham Electoral “Integrity” Commission in Atlanta and she was awesome!

I love this.

Okay, this revolutionary is starving and must have hummus now.

Fight on,

Kat

Kat Calvin

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